Perfect 10 quest eludes Thunder

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER . . . Northern Thunder’s Sara Bayman (right) battles with Rose Morgan-Smith, of Hertfordshire Mavericks.

NETBALL: ALL good things must come to an end . . . just ask the players, officials and supporters of Northern Thunder.

After a run of nine consecutive wins, Thunder suffered a first defeat of the season in the Fiat Superleague at high-flying Hertfordshire Mavericks.

But they pushed their hosts all the way in a 50-46 loss.

In a topsy-turvy clash, Mavericks established an early three-goal lead, Thunder recovered to go in front by two and were 10-up in the second quarter at one stage.

But the third period produced six goals from just eight attempts, while Mavericks grabbed 16.

Thunder were two goals ahead at the first break, which forced the Mavericks to swap Camilla Buchanan for Australian livewire Georgia Schmidt, who went on to play one of her best games for Mavericks.

Sara Bayman was equally outstanding for Thunder in the second quarter, forcing errors before ensuring the ball was swiftly dispatched back down the court.

It all went wrong for the visitors in the third quarter.

Coach Mike Greenwood made a switch that had been working pretty well this season so far.

He brought on the mighty presence of Lynsey Armitage at goal shooter, with Karen Greig moving out to goal attack.

But this time it didn’t work. Armitage was persistently penalised for contact against player-of-the-match Layla Guscoth and, when a medical time-out was called, Greig returned to the circle.

Greenwood said: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I don’t think I should have done it.

“But we’ve got players going away and I have to give those that are here some exposure and they’re not going to get that sat on the bench.”

Thunder suffered another hammer blow when skipper Greig fell awkwardly and had to leave the court.

“It was my good knee as well,” she said. “I twisted on it and it caved in underneath me. I heard something go, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed it’s nothing too bad.”

Mavericks knew they had the upper hand and made the most of their chances, with Louisa Brownfield banging in the goals at regular intervals.

Greenwood added: “I don’t think we did ourselves justice.

“We had a bit of a bad luck with Karen, but it’s not all about one player and we lost a bit of composure.”


Roses’ comfortable triumph
NORTHERN Thunder earlier made it eight wins on the bounce with an emphatic 69-39 defeat of Leeds Carnegie, who paid the price for making too many errors in this rearranged game.

The home side led 21-7 at the half-way stage and were never threatened by their Roses rivals in the first of three matches in a hectic five-day spell.

The second half was a more evenly-matched contest as Leeds cut out the mistakes.

Win number nine came at the expense of Loughborough Lighting, although the 63-47 scoreline was slightly misleading.

The two teams were all-square at 10-10 at one stage, with too many unforced errors from both sides.

The second quarter was more settled, with Thunder’s Kathryn Turner netting three from three and forcing a three-second penalty which was duly converted.

Turner, who was celebrating her 18th birthday, played three-quarters of a Superleague match for the first time and boasted a superb 82-per-cent in her shooting statistics.